Pedagogia da comida: práticas da alimentação escolar a partir da percepção de merendeiras

Abstract

School feeding in Brazil stands out as the longer-lasting public policy in the country when it comes to the food and nutrition security area. It aims to assure students in the public education system, the provision of food for their full growth and development, considering the period that they are at school. The term “food pedagogy” used in the title of this research, seeks to inquire about the experiences of eating in the community, especially about school feeding, studying their meanings, and how these references are built over the years. Within this context, we find food handlers, or as called in this research, lunch ladies (“merendeiras”), professionals who are closely linked to constructions of the meanings of eating at school. Thus, this research aims to analyze the perceptions of lunch ladies, from two municipalities in the Rio Grande do Sul state, about school feeding. This research is characterized as qualitative, using the action research method. First of all, a semi-structured interview was carried out with the lunch ladies, and after analyzing these interviews, it was possible to categorize the answers, considering their perceptions about school feeding. For the interviews, the total number of participants was nine lunch ladies. After analyzing the interviews, three conversation circles were developed, with eight participants. The survey results show that the lunch ladies know little about the PNAE public policy, but they know about the practice and the importance of their daily tasks. Regarding school menus, it was possible to discuss the requirements, restrictions, and preferences of food groups, highlighting the importance of complying with what is established in the legislation, thinking about the meals offered with nutritional quality. Regarding the factors that influence adherence to school feeding, the lunch ladies reported that the students eat because they are hungry, but also because of encouragement, taste, class shift, type of preparation, or because they prefer another activity, such as playing. The fact that some students take snacks from home was also seen as an interference in the adherence to the food served in the school environment. Finally, we noticed the relevance of constant training with the lunch ladies, allowing an expansion of their perceptions about school feeding, understanding the public policy that is PNAE and its characteristics.